Random Contexts

Saturday, September 19, 2015

I
can’t believe this might be Kobe’s last season.Barring any more injuries, I’m sure it will be a good one.Right now though, I’m trying to connect some
principle to explain this relationship I have observed between Jordan and
Kobe.I have said before, I think Kobe
is better than Jordan because of a ‘quality not quantity’ issue.Jordan played under the finesse game.Kobe is
the finesse game.Now, we are looking at
careers, but I guess there is a special emphasis on Jordan’s and Kobe’s
primes.When Jordan was in his prime,
his game was rough.Jordan didn’t survey
then attack the defense.Jordan looked
at his team so to distract the defense, then he went in.It always worked, that’s why he was so
successful with it.That’s why I say
Jordan played under the finesse game.He
used the offense to create his own offense.To me, it’s cool to float through the air and knock down jumpshots, but
what if you’re the greatest at it and somebody comes along doing what you did
except the new person makes it look better?

This
is what Kobe did.With the exception of
the amount of awards earned, Kobe did what Jordan did, but Kobe made it look
better.Jordan and Kobe both go hard on
the court, but when Jordan did it, it looked savage and beastly.Jordan took control.When Kobe goes hard, there’s a polished
refinement to his moves.They’re hard,
but they’re quick, and the blur from the quickness seems to make Kobe
glow.Don’t get me wrong, Kobe took
control too.But Kobe looked at the
defense and played off the defense using his offense, which is the exact
opposite of what Jordan did.If Kobe
thought he could take the defense by himself, he did.If he thought he could use some help, he went
to his offense to move the ball.This is
the finesse game.Jordan used his team,
but Kobe utilized his team.It’s similar
to the dating game: Does a person want a mate who will use her, or does she
want a mate who will make her look and feel like she’s worth something?Anybody can learn how to use people.I know my mate is special when he can bring
out the best in me instead of stressing me about what I can or can’t do for
him.

It’s the same thing
with Kobe and Jordan.Jordan used his
offense.He didn’t play the game, he
used it to his own personal advantage.He played under Phil’s triangle.But Jordan wasn’t the triangle.Kobe was the triangle.The
triangle moves around the defense.In
order to move around the defense, you have to see the defense.Jordan didn’t see the defense.Jordan looked to make sure the offense was
out of his way so he could score.Kobe
looked at the defense, and went at the defense whether he had to do it with the
team or by himself.He brought the best
out of his teammates, maximizing their potentials and putting the whole team in
the best possible place to score.Basically, Jordan was a ball hog.Kobe wasn’t.It looks the
opposite to the untrained eye.A real
basketball head knows better.

Monday, July 27, 2015

I
don’t like when people call me racist.How is recognizing and accepting one’s identity being racist?Racism, as much as we hate to admit it, is a
core component of our society’s foundation.So to speak of one’s identity without speaking of race is
extraordinarily difficult and frustrating.When I walk down the street, people see a non-black.But I was raised to say something to the
effect of ‘I identify as African American.’This is an inherently confusing situation to suffer through, let alone
to try and explain to people why I think the way I do about interracial
breeding.Let’s face it, as much as
science tries to write off race as a ‘fiction,’ differences between ‘groups of
people’ materialize; race happens to be an easily recognizable difference
between groups of people.It is even a
part of biological science that race is a trait found in our chromosomes, and
it just so happens that the trait of dark skin is a dominant trait, and the
trait for light skin is a recessive trait.All I’m trying to say about interracial breeding is why weaken your
bloodline?If you’re smart enough to
know you ‘love’ somebody, then why can’t you be smart enough to know that
you’re killing yourself when you ‘love’ outside your race?We are talking about romantic love too,
because let me tell it, and we are all supposed to love one another.But romantic love is beyond Platonic love;
romantic love is the idea people are meant to be together.What does it mean to be ‘meant for each
other?’

I
don’t think I’m personally going to find out the answer to that question, but
in the meantime, know this:Every day I
look in the mirror I do see the death of the black African American community. I am no longer black but am African American
still, and I feel all the pain of being African American without being
black.I am not considered black by most
if not all of society, yet I have to deal with the agonizing forces of
privileged versus non-privileged people.Put me up against a dark skinned person, and it’s all about what they
can do better than me.Put me up against
a light skinned person, and it’s all about my shortcomings.I am never valued just for being myself.Most people know who or what they are because
people tell them.Not as labels, but
just to let them know, so they won’t have to wander around life surrounded by
mysteries and secrets.What a concept.I, on the other hand, have no idea what I’m
good at, have no idea who I am, and what’s worse is that nobody cared to tell
me before and they still don’t care to tell me now.On top of not looking like the race and
ethnicity that I am.So in a racial, capitalist
society, I am basically a ghost.I mean
like, literally a ghost, and not just because of my complexion.

So
when I rant against interracial breeding, I am pleading for understanding that
it’s not about you, it’s about your kids.You didn’t have to grow up in our society looking one race and actually
being another.You didn’t have to
explain to the ever so curious human being ‘what are you mixed with?’And don’t blame the curiosity.It’s part of the fabric of our society to be
racial and ethnically motivated, and there really isn’t anything wrong with it,
if we could have some order about ourselves in our treatment of the
subject.I am not racist, that is my
story and I’m sticking to it.I don’t
believe one race or ethnicity is better or worse than others; it is a
scientific fact though that dark skin is a dominant gene and light skin is a
recessive one.If you don’t believe me
ask my high school biology teacher.She’s really smart.And she let
me open a pig’s skull and look at its brain too.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

A
couple of weeks ago, I went into an explanation on a post about why I used the
pen name Nae 2Real.I have now decided
that using this pen name isn’t one of my better ideas.So, for the people that know me by my regular
name, just know that yeah I’m still JaNae.But for my blogs, I’m just going to go by Denise.I think it’s sort of like the same thing with
college.I told a bunch of people my
name was a bunch of things because I really didn’t know what to go by.I wasn’t trying to confuse people, but it’s a
sticky situation when you grow up with one name only to find out legally your
name is something else.I didn’t know my
first name until … let’s just say I was being bothered and learning new stuff
about myself, when I should have already knew this stuff about myself and
should not have been bothered.

I do have to say,
though, that I don’t want to just be called anything.There are choices of what I have to go
by.I don’t really care to have Nae
2Real to be one of the names I go by though.Times are good, times are bad, but sometimes, there’s no time at all.

About Me

'Random contexts is my investment in illustrating how I frame my writing, and a hopelessly romantic ideal of how others should frame my writing as well. It is easier to explain why I’m writing what I’m writing than to allow readers to wonder what I mean, wallowing in uncertainty, while all the time I could’ve just framed the proper perspective for the reader.'